Cast Stainless Steel Inspection

Application

Inspection of Cast Stainless Steel Used in Coolant Systems of Pressurized Water

AOS products

OEM-PA 128/128, FMC data acquisition software
A study was conducted recently which used Full Matrix Capture (FMC) and Total Focusing Method (TFM) as well as conventional phased array techniques to inspect cast stainless steel. The device OEM-PA 128/128 was used in this study because of it’s ability to handle conventional phased array as well as the more advanced FMC / TFM. The goal of this study was to improve signal to noise ratio when inspecting this type of material.

Cast stainless steel is a material which is widely used in the nuclear industry. Because of its low cost, high corrosion resistance and mechanical strength, it is the ideal material for coolant systems of pressurized water reactors. The issue with this is that the material is exposed to high temperatures and high pressure that can produce thermal or mechanical fatigue cracks. One of the challenges with inspecting cast stainless steel is the level of noise in the material. A low frequency probe was used for the scanning of this material in the study.